Carmen Sandiego (2019)---From Netflix, DHX Media and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

It was more Depending on the Writer. I only recall Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? depicting her as anything more than a Card-Carrying Villain who, on account of it being an edutainment game for children, can never actually do anything physically harmful, was still played up as if she were an incredibly dangerous villain. Not helping matters was her minimal screentime, so little characterization in either the games or the game shows.

Game shows rarely give anyone a personality, except maybe Win Ben Stein's Money.

Edited by Beatman1 on Jan 6th 2019 at 6:07:19 AM

It depend, in the series she is a chaotic neutral who can steal ANYTHING, which part of her charm, making her a younger hero look like just your typical version of heroe.

I am not very familiar with her. Was her original character a Robin Hood kind of thing or a selfish thief with morals?

You can still probably make that heroic, just look at Sly Cooper whom is basically both.

Edited by Wispy on Jan 7th 2019 at 3:49:30 AM

Well for one thing just from looking at our page on the franchise there's the fact that she's apparently the founder of the antagonist/villain group but that's clearly not the case here.

She has no real characterization (befitting the villain of a game show and edutainment programs) other than doing it for the thrill. She’s not Robin Hood in any of her characterization (being primarily selfish) or Lupin III for that matter. She’s primary a one dimensional jerk, but one with morals about not hurting people.

And that's what makes her so much fun to fight against, but not necessarily a good protagonist.

Yeah, as noted, the traditional characterization for Carmen Sandiego is that she's a self-centered thrill seeker who steals priceless artifacts, historical relics, and even famous monuments all for the sake of indulging her adrenaline high. As the antagonistic face of a children's edutainment franchise, she's a lighter shade of black. She has few if any truly positive qualities. She's not a murderer or anything that would make her too evil, but she still does things that absolutely need to have a stop put to them.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 7th 2019 at 7:09:37 AM

Carmen steals because she's bored, she wants to, and she can. She's a thrill-seeker that steals for kicks, no ulterior motive behind it. That's what makes her so amusing.

She should be a Villain Protagonist, not an outright hero, unless they're doing her backstory back when she worked as an agent.

Yeah, she just steal sthing and the point she is so damn awsome she is capable of stealing monuments, just to prove she is in fact the bigges thief in the world.

The trailer has her stealing the stuff that VILE stole (and presumably returning it either to their owner or its original location, though that was never mentioned). But seriously, this doesnt really need the Carmen Sandiego IP. It's not like She-Ra where there's SOME connection to the old show, this could work as it's own thing.

For those who are concerned that she's TOO heroic, it IS possible that that could be addressed as part of her character development. Maybe she'll edge slowly into more anti-hero teritory.

Heh, I'll judge the show on its own merit. Yeah, they are trying something different, but that might not be a bad thing. The show's been many things. Game shows, adventuring kid cartoon. Maybe Carmen as a noble thief will work too. Ultimately I wanna judge the show on its own and not compared to what the rest of the franchise did.

I'm totally gonna compare it to the rest of the franchise. Because if the show winds up bearing no resemblance to Carmen Sandiego, then the question needs to be asked of why you would put Carmen Sandiego's name on it.

Like. If I made a Robin Hood show about Robin Hood being a soldier in a space military whose platoon battles wicked aliens in order to find a magic artifact hidden at the center of the galaxy, it might be a really cool show. But one may be inclined to ask, "Why is this Robin Hood? What part of this has anything to do with Robin Hood?"

When you put a brand name on your story, you do so with the intent that it will be considered a part of the overall brand. If the show wanted to be taken as an independent work with no relationship to the Carmen Sandiego franchise, it wouldn't be a Carmen Sandiego show.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 8th 2019 at 9:27:28 AM

Thus far, Carmen being a master thief is still in tact so it isn't quite accurate to say it bares no resemblance to the rest of the franchise. And as pointed out, the franchise has been different things before.

Like I said, if. My point was in response to the idea of taking this entry into a long-existing franchise as if it existed in a vacuum and and was not a part of a franchise, a concept that I disagree with.

If it wasn't supposed to be measured as a Carmen Sandiego series, they wouldn't have made it a Carmen Sandiego series.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 8th 2019 at 12:11:39 PM

You've heard snippets of the spy thriller-esque theme song before, now witness the full intro with Chromosphere's stylish animation.

It's not Rockapella, or even a retooled Mozart song, but I'm liking the approach. For those who want their Rockapella itch though...

Edited by XMenMutant22 on Jan 12th 2019 at 4:55:00 AM

The new song isn't bad...but goddamn that remix fits well.

The (unrelated to the reboot) remix was actually composed by the originals of the old PBS game shows ("Where in the World" and "Where In Time"): Sean Altman and David Yazbek.

Here's a link to the original, posted by Altman himself.

Edited by XMenMutant22 on Jan 12th 2019 at 6:29:41 AM

There is a review of the show out now:

http://collider.com/carmen-sandiego-review/

It sounds like fun, but it does some like some of the traditional educational content is lost in the shuffle. They also reveal some of the voice cast and characters, with Rita Monerno, the original Carmen voice actor returning as a side character. It does seem they like they are bringing back a lot of characters from the 90s era show.

This review goes into some of the plot points, it has some spoilers for episode 3, so watch out, but it does seem like V.I.L.E lives up its name and Carmen is sympathetic by foiling their more destructive and insidious schemes.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/2019/01/13/carmen-sandiego-netflix-tv-review/

Edited by Overlord on Jan 14th 2019 at 11:01:28 AM

I enjoyed the series. Wasn't amazing, but still an enjoyable evening.

I pegged Shadowsan as being the one who found Carmen about half way though the final episode. Which I'm proud of.

It's a shame Netflix autoskips the opening for me. Especially with such a great opening song!

Isn't classic Carmen just basically a phantom thief or gentleman thief character?

Liiike, isn't it common thing in franchises about such character to eventually feature installment where they are the protagonist? I don't really get what is weird about that

Edited by SpookyMask on Jan 18th 2019 at 5:38:47 PM

Well, have to postbone it because I want to watch The Punisher first...But I guess I will eventually get to it.

Watched the first five episodes. It was going to be the first two or three, but it wound up sucking me in for a little while longer. I guess that's a good sign.

I do like this somewhat more sympathetic take on Carmen. Also, maybe the educational stuff could have been added in in a more natural way, but I'm fine with it having its own little section; that way, I can just focus on the other parts (still nice to know more things about the locales, though; also nice that it factors into the plot of an episode in some manner).

I think they've done good with this new take on the franchise. I'll keep watching.

Edited by SonicWind on Jan 18th 2019 at 2:58:21 PM

Yeah, I watched the whole series yesterday. My only annoyance is misunderstandings from Acme's side and Argent being only one with right idea